Foresight
by Sorrow has a Human Heart
Summary: While Nibelheim burns, Sephiroth's budding obsession with Tifa causes him to "spare" her father. In the aftermath, Tifa is slowly forced to understand the heart and mind of the man who would take everything away...
1. Victims

**A/N: This story was born unexpectedly, after reading Carrie88's "Sacrifice". It got me thinking about what Sephiroth's early fascination/ obsession with Tifa might have looked like, and that plot bunny morphed and grew and ate all my freaking food until it was demanding its own plot! Gluttonous little bugger...Also, this is the first time I've ever posted a story with only one chapter prepared. But, let's see if it can go the distance, shall we?**

**Disclaimer: I am just a puppet. I have no heart, cannot feel any pain, and do not own FFVII.**

* * *

**Foresight-Victims**

* * *

Sephiroth leveled his blade at the trembling man before him. Among humans, this one was a prime example of their inherent inferiority; their wasted breath. Sweat beaded and dripped from his brow. His clothes were scorched and marred from his reckless dash through the flaming town below. The laughable excuse for a weapon quaked with his hands in fear. That tiny pistol might have served well against a rabid animal, or an unsavory village drunkard, but against him? Sephiroth had taken more than his fair share of gunshot wounds, but they hardly ever lasted more than a day.

"S-stop, stop right there, General..."

Stuttered words tumbled from his mouth, meaningless and almost whispered for how the man's throat constricted. He still fancied having the upper hand, even as his friends and neighbors cooked in Nibelheim's unquenchable fires. Slowly, Sephiroth brought Masamune's sharp point to rest at the base of the man's neck. A simple flick of his wrist is all it would take to silence this needless distraction. Mother was awaiting his arrival just inside the reactor.

But, when the man's gun slipped from his sweating palms, he lost his footing and fell on his backside, staring wide-eyed at Sephiroth. They were huge, frightened, brown eyes, glazed over with tears that highlighted a touch of crimson. This man's eyes were almost exact replicas of ones that had beheld him earlier, but with a sort of subdued awe and reverence.

And for once, Sephiroth hadn't minded being watched...

Only a week ago, this man's young daughter had observed his brief clashes with dragons and other, hideous, mako-born monstrosities, unafraid. Where most female SOLDIER fans would have backed away after realizing the truth of their nature, she had continued to look on with honest fascination. But then, she was no fan of ShinRa or SOLDIER. Nevertheless, Tifa had seen how he reveled in the slaughter, and had only been all the more intrigued for it.

Sephiroth remembered thinking that, beyond mere aesthetics, their guide was beautiful. A fighter in training herself, she had questioned him on his advanced technique, and it wasn't the normal, childish prattling hormonal women usually offered him. Tifa's inquiries were thoughtful, and when he gave his frank replies, she didn't recoil in disgust as the others might have. She was far more resilient than they; more intelligent. Only when he decided the group wouldn't be able to recover that damned cadet who'd fallen from the bridge right away did she back off. How very odd it was, to experience disappointment when someone chose to leave him to his devices.

The let-down only intensified when he learned of his origins. In the basement, while he absorbed page after page of notes and theories about Mother and the project that had created him, Tifa remained ever-present in the back of his mind. What he learned there gave him two choices for what he could be; a monster or a god. But, monsters were slaves to instinct, easily tamed and given orders. They could never learn of their creation, and depart from being anything than what they were. Sephiroth concluded that he, the hybrid Cetra, was neither human nor monster. His purpose was much loftier and greater than either of those. By comparison, the humans were simple animals; an infestation. With that knowledge, he would avenge Mother, and rule the Planet in her stead. And then, what would that girl think of him? What would he do with her...? She was human as well. The thought continued to plague him, even while he torched her hometown.

Tifa...

Yes, Mother was waiting, but destroying this sliver of a man before him would only spark animosity between him and that unusual human girl. Oh, he'd die eventually, whether by his hand under better circumstances, or perhaps by ShinRa's doing. The company would surely send men and Turks to investigate when they got wind of what he'd done. But, he admitted to himself, Tifa's attention amused him too much to let her simply die with the rest; too much to ruin it by evoking her personal wrath so directly...

A small, malicious chuckle escaped Sephiroth's throat, and he removed his blade to stalk closer to Tifa's father. "Perhaps your distrust for me wasn't so ill-founded after all, Lockhart," he hissed, kneeling down just in front of him.

The man was hyperventilating now, perfectly terrified. A quick blow to the top of his head with Masamune's handle put him out of his misery, at least temporarily. Who or what actually finished him off, Sephiroth didn't care. Lockhart was no longer an obstacle to him. All that mattered was that if someone discovered the body, it would be free and clear of a single sword's cut. Resolute, he sheathed the blade in a nearby outcropping of rocks instead. Anyone who dared to interrupt his first meeting with Mother after all he'd already done could take that as their final warning.

Below, Nibelheim glowed brighter and hotter while the wood and coal in each building transformed into huge embers. With his enhanced vision, he could make out Tifa's form, searching the town frantically for help, survivors, her father...and, the culprit. She was looking for him. Sephiroth grunted slightly, and turned to enter the reactor. That girl would hate him at first. But, when the night ended and the smoke cleared, he and Tifa would be the only ones left standing. By then, she'd embrace a healthy, well-earned fear of him. But, she'd also see that his sole mercy had been for her...

* * *

Tifa's lungs burned, and the soles of her feet ached as she sprinted up the mountain trail. Every so often, she thought she heard the familiar, loathsome snarls and growls of Nibel wolves, but she ignored them. There was no time to clear a path! Zangan told her that her father-her beloved, overprotective father-had gone after the deranged General, thinking he could stop him. But, she knew he couldn't. He hadn't seen what she had; how Sephiroth could slice through Mount Nibel's strongest, most ferocious monsters without breaking a sweat. If he actually reached him...Tifa whimpered slightly at the thought, and kept running, up, up, up. She had to get to him first, and make him turn back. That's all either one of them could do now, if they really wanted to live.

Inklings of fury and confusion swept through her mind, but she pushed them back. All that mattered was saving the only family she had left. Then, they could mourn and be angry together, and go somewhere far, far away, where ShinRa and SOLDIER were unheard of. Somewhere they could be safe and free.

If only such a place existed...

A few stray tears leaked from the corners of her eyes, and she pushed herself to run faster. Tifa wondered if she should have seen this coming. Only a week ago, she'd guided Sephiroth, Zack, and their back-up infantrymen up the mountain. At a first glance, she truly couldn't see how it had come to this. Sephiroth had come off as a bit impatient and indifferent, but not homicidal, and certainly not unstable! The only incident in their climb that could have portended anything like this was when one of the men had fallen from an unsecured rope bridge. Rather than taking what would have been a very understandable detour to go get him, Sephiroth had coldly insisted that they needed to continue on to the reactor first. But, she also sensed some kind of brooding anxiety in his decision. The clues were all so small, but they _had_ been right in front of her.

Before that, he'd seemed so...sad. Withdrawn. So, Tifa tried to talk to him, about anything-the natural mako springs they came across, his impressive swordsmanship-_anything._ For the most part, she'd barraged him with questions, and had worried that she was only irritating him. But then, he'd flashed her a quick, soft smile from time to time that said otherwise; that reassured her that she was treading safe, friendly ground with him.

Until that infantryman's accident, Sephiroth hadn't acted the cold, calculating General he was rumored to be. But, it was too late to wonder what had changed to bring that side out; what had gone so terribly wrong. Nibelheim was as good as destroyed, and countless innocent people had lost their lives at his hands. People she knew, cared for, and grew up with were all gone; bleeding out in the streets.

Furiously, Tifa wiped the offending moisture from her face. The ground suddenly leveled out, and the reactor towered before her, only a few yards ahead. Quickly scanning the area, she spotted her father, lying in a messy heap off to her right.

"Papa...!" she cried out, but he gave no answer.

Kneeling down, Tifa lightly shook him, relieved to see that he wasn't cut, and was still breathing. But, Sephiroth had planted his sword in the rocks not too far away, and her father wouldn't wake up. A small trail of blood trickled down his forehead, leaking out from a superficial gouge. Around it, the skin was swollen and bruised.

"Sephiroth did this to you, didn't he?" Tifa breathed, shaking.

She...she had to stop him! That lunatic SOLDIER had torched her home, and killed most of the people, and for what? She wasn't about to believe that his nightmarish rampage had finished in knocking one man out. The twisted bastard probably wanted witnesses. What if he was waiting in the shadows of the reactor just for her arrival, so that he could finish him off while she watched? Tifa knew she was jumping to rage-inspired conclusions, but that one didn't feel too far-fetched; not when her greatest source of light was the inferno below.

"I'll be right back, alright?" she sobbed to her unconscious father, and stood.

Drawing Sephiroth's Masamune from the rocks, she dashed toward the reactor, and went inside. This was the first time she'd ever been inside one of ShinRa's reactors, but the rows of white pods told her all she needed to know to guess what had caused the recent monster outbreak. ShinRa had been manufacturing them all along, and then something had gone wrong with the system. So, they sent in SOLDIER because of how dangerous it was, and then...then, the SOLDIERs turned into the worst monsters of them all.

Her thoughts raced, until she looked up the stairs that ran up through the center of the pods. Sephiroth stood at the top, outside of a sealed door labeled "JENOVA", with his back turned, babbling nonsensical things about someone opening the door...

He was unarmed.

She had his sword.

He was a murderer, a madman, a lost cause, and a ShinRa tool...

Holding the heavy blade awkwardly in front of her, Tifa charged up the steps, prepared to cut him down. She'd hardly raised Masamune when Sephiroth whipped around, and grabbed her by her wrists. He easily pried the blade from her locked hands, and lifted her from the floor. Tifa squirmed and flailed, trying to loosen her hands, but his iron grip only tightened.

Sephiroth drew her closer, inspecting her. Tifa cringed. His predatory, mako-green eyes burned beneath the shadow of his bangs when he looked at her. Predator-that's exactly what he'd turned into; maybe what he'd been all along, just acting his part until it was time to strike. The casual, gentle smile he'd previously offered her was replaced with a satisfied, malicious smirk.

Then, there was pain. It felt like someone had lit a fire across her midsection. And, she was flying-no, _falling_-through the air. Her hands were suddenly free, but her backside quickly met with the edge of a step, and another, and another, until the top of her head hit bottom. Closing her eyes, Tifa tried to suck in a deep breath, tried to recover, but failed. Warm, wet fluid gushed from her chest and stomach along a neat, diagonal line, exacerbating her pain. Her head was spinning. She could hardly breathe, couldn't move, and it wouldn't stop. There was only bleeding, the reactor's hum, footsteps, and more and more blood.

A familiar voice said something; an apology? She felt herself lifted from where she'd crashed down, and gently laid down on a more even floor. Tifa couldn't think. She was enraged, terrified, and so utterly helpless; she knew she was dying.

"Sephiroth...SOLDIER...ShinRa...I hate them all..."

* * *

_"This one is most fascinating! Include her with the others. It's been a while since I had a viable female specimen for my experiment..."_

_"And the man we found outside? Will he be included as well, Professor Hojo?"_

_"No, no. He's too old. Useless. He'd never withstand my ingenious methods. Put him down with the rest."_

Gunfire resounded outside the reactor's walls, and jarred Tifa awake.

She'd long since lost track of time in this Gaia-forsaken place. The food or drugs the heinous professor and his technicians gave her always put her to sleep. Two others had been with her on that damnable night; Zack and Cloud. She'd briefly wondered where Cloud had been all that time, but more than anything, she grieved for her father. Almost every time she fell unconscious, she'd dream of that hazy moment, when she was so near death. She hadn't been able to budge, she was so weakened. When the depraved scientist had ordered her father's execution, she couldn't even muster the strength to beg for his life. Her dreams always ended with the shots that had killed him.

Sometimes, Tifa felt like she'd been weeping, but in her tiny, glass, mako-filled prison, it was impossible to tell. But, she had more than enough reasons to cry. Whatever they'd done to her and the others had healed them at first. The deep, fatal cut across her torso had closed up and knit together so neatly, there was barely a scar. In spite of her father's demise, Tifa had allowed herself to hope she was receiving advanced medical treatment, alongside Zack and Cloud. She'd theorized that once her injuries had fully mended, ShinRa might attempt to conscript her. From there, she'd even gone so far as to start formulating plans on how she could sabotage the company from the inside out.

But then, the experiments had started. The first test had been the most excruciating. Once it was healed, Hojo had opened a fresh cut along the scar, although not quite as deep. After that, he'd injected her with a dark-colored substance. While she thrashed about in agony, he'd been quite content to mock her.

_"Cease your meaningless struggles, girl. Look at what my experiment has done for you!"_

The man was cruel, perverse, and sadistic on a level she'd never before conceived, but he'd been right. The new cut closed and healed in a matter of minutes. Yet, what she'd at first seen as some kind of miraculous enhancement quickly turned into a curse. Experiment upon experiment followed, and Hojo and his team paid no mind to her comfort. They neither numbed her, nor offered the smallest word of consolation or apology. In effect, they'd worked away at making her body unbreakable, just so they could test her limits again and again, all while taking notes to give themselves an excuse to call what they were doing "science". But, it wasn't. Their goals were foggy at best; it was torture, and nothing else.

Most bizarre and morbidly eye-opening was when she had to watch them do the same to Cloud and Zack. Zack's body reacted like hers had, but a little faster. Cloud, on the other hand, was less fortunate. His body healed fairly well, but he seemed less and less "there" mentally at the end of each new test. When he lost the ability to talk, she stopped caring for what the point of being guinea pigs was. Hoping for an end wasn't getting them anywhere. They had to force their way out somehow. Thankfully, Zack had the same idea.

"When?" Tifa scratched into the glass surface of her cell, first glancing out to be certain they were alone.

"Meal time. That's our chance!" Zack scratched in return.

Cloud limply lifted a hand to say something as well, but his head fell. He was too weak and disoriented to hold down a coherent thought. While she and Zack had strengthened, Cloud had only deteriorated. Tifa knew that if they didn't try to break out soon, the professor's torturous experiments were going to kill him.

Still, Tifa almost had to laugh at Zack's recommendation for feeding time. Not that it was a bad plan; the small opening in their cells would give them an opportunity to cripple their captors. It was just that meal time was normally when they'd all pass out again, and wake to their bodies full of holes, wires, and surgical instruments. Tifa had enough of being injected and dissected alive on a daily basis. Using the time they'd usually start the process as a window of escape was just...perfect.

* * *

A disproportionately large part of Tifa wished she could eat whatever the lab technician was preparing to feed her. That was why they'd never tried or thought of this before; when it was time to eat, they were usually starving. Hojo and his team only fed them once per day, and the food was rich in protein, fat, and mild sedatives. Of course, the latter was only there to subdue them for extraction from their tanks. None of them were ever in any shape to fight between their prisons and the operating tables.

This time, she, Cloud, and Zack would have to do without. One missed meal, even if it was the only one, was a small price to pay for their freedom. As the small feeding slot opened, Tifa sent the palm of her hand flying out at the tech's face. Her hand impacted just beneath his nose, forcing the cartilage back into his brain. Rearing back, she saw him fall to the floor, eyes open and unblinking. He was dead. But, in her moment of panic, she'd failed to grab his passkey. Tifa could have screamed, until she saw that Zack had successfully acquired his, and was busy with Cloud's lock. His victim was better off; he'd only knocked him out.

When her tank's door slid open, Tifa stumbled out, and crouched down near the deceased techie. She hadn't planned on taking his life, but the moment had come and gone. There was no time to size him up or think about how hard she should or _could_ hit. She had only done what she knew would be the most effective. But, she'd never taken another person's life before. She'd always believed that if it happened, she'd be clearly under attack. This man had just been doing his job.

"I...didn't mean to..." she mumbled, and stepped back from the body.

"You couldn't help it," Zack reassured her. "It's not like he was clueless about what's going on here."

Prying her eyes from the dead, Tifa nodded, fighting the urge to cry or freeze. The sooner they left, the better. She saw that Zack had tossed one of Cloud's arms around his shoulders. Cloud's eyes kept rolling back into his head, and he could hardly walk on his own. Silently, she walked around to pick up his other arm, taking some of the weight off of Zack.

"Any idea where we are?"she asked, surveying the long, dark hallway set before the lab.

"Still in Nibelheim, or what's left of it. This is the mansion's basement. There might still be monsters, so be careful."

Slowly, the trio trudged down the hall. As Zack had expected, small, deformed monsters crept up on them a few times. Tifa stayed by Cloud's side, while Zack dispatched them. The spiral array of stairs, step-ladders, and landings that led to the top was no different. Weak, mutated monsters scurried out of empty crates or crevices in the wall, slowing their progress. But, when they finally reached the top, they still had yet to run into any human resistance. Tifa hoped and prayed that it meant that Hojo's operation here was lightly manned, and that their get-away would be fairly quiet.

The wall opened up to a deceptively inconspicuous bedroom. Behind, it closed, and conformed to the rest of the bricks to look like part of a chimney. No one would have ever come for them down there. Who would have guessed where to look? Helping Zack guide Cloud to the rest on the bed, Tifa blinked rapidly. She hadn't seen so much daylight in...days? Weeks, if she had to guess? However long it had been, her sight adjusted quickly enough. Cloud wasn't getting any better, though. He'd slumped back against the headboard, and a tiny stream of drool trickled from his mouth.

"Cloud...what's wrong?" Tifa softly lamented. "How are we supposed to help?"

"It's probably mako addiction. They were basically storing us in it down there," Zack explained. "I'm going to see if I can find him a change of clothes. The ones he has on absorbed a lot."

Tifa shook her head, and coaxed Cloud into a laying position. Maybe he'd be more comfortable like that? He didn't offer much resistance. She took note of how slowly he blinked, and his eyes' glazed-over, far-away gaze. And, looking him over, she noticed for the first time that he was wearing a cadet's uniform. Unless he was supposed to be undercover, that probably meant he'd never made it into SOLDIER. Knowing him, he'd be so embarrassed after boasting about his goals to become like "the best there is".

He'd hidden from her, Tifa decided. He must have been with Zack and Sephiroth the whole time...

"You can tell me what happened when you get better, alright?" she mildly scolded him, but wondered if he could even hear her.

Ever so slightly, Cloud turned his head then, trying for all his worth to focus. "Ti...fa...?" he slurred, and fell limp again.

Tifa jumped; startled that he'd said something. "Yeah, it's me, Cloud. I'm right here."

_"As am I..."_

Turning in a complete circle, Tifa held her breath. Down the hall, she could hear Zack rummaging through old closets and dressers. Next to her, Cloud did nothing but _breathe. _The mansion itself gave off token creaks and groans, typical for a house its age. In spite of the chills creeping along her arms and up her neck, there was no one new. They hadn't been discovered yet.

"I think I've been holed up for too long..." Tifa complained.

She was hearing things that weren't there; too accustomed to having to listen for the lab technician's voices, too used to bracing for whatever awful tests Hojo had assigned them to carry out. That is, if Hojo's sneering voice wasn't the one she'd heard first...

Tifa stared at her arms and hands, and sighed. They were thoroughly scarred from how often needles and other devices had punctured and cut them. Anyone who didn't know where she'd been or understand what Hojo's team had done with her could easily mistake her for a common junkie, she depressively mused. She was unsure of which would be worse; admitting that she'd been captive to a mad scientist and his flunkies, or lying and saying that she was "recovering"? The latter was probably a lot more believable, and it would also keep her from having to rehash everything she'd endured. So what if telling people she'd made that kind of mistake made her seem irresponsible or untrustworthy at first? All she wanted was to separate herself from the time she'd spent in the lab, and get on with her life. A little humiliation was worth it.

Gaia, the only reason her sanity was still intact was because she hadn't gone through it all alone! Being deprived of almost every single person she cared for, and then locked away and tortured in the aftermath weren't exactly experiences meant to be survived.

Before Tifa could start dwelling how horribly she did not want those memories to be hers, Zack walked back in, graciously interrupting them. He was carrying an old SOLDIER's uniform. "Alright, I found something...that _seriously_ smells like it needs washed. But, it's better than what he's wearing now. You mind helping me change him, Tifa? It's the chance of a lifetime," he teased.

A light blushed crawled up into Cloud's face despite his near-comatose state, and Tifa laughed. "Yeah, I can hold him still for you."

As she lifted Cloud's arms, Zack pulled his blue cadet's sweater over his head, and quickly replaced it with the black First Class one he'd dug up. The backs of Cloud's ears had grown red, and under any other circumstances, Tifa would have found this hilarious. But, she found it difficult to keep her spirits up.

"Zack, why don't we have mako addiction?"

Zack straightened up, clearly using her question as an excuse to stop working on Cloud's pants. Tifa cracked another smile; there really was no entirely decent way to go about this.

"Jenova," he bitterly stated. For a moment, he looked just as haunted and grieved as she felt. "It was kind of hard to pick up on much else, but the stuff they kept injecting us with? That was from Jenova...the creature they use to enhance SOLDIERs. You have to be able to tolerate mako pretty good just to get in, but after that, they add Jenova cells to the mix so you can become stronger and absorb even more. I don't think Cloud was very lucky with either..."

Feeling faint, Tifa sat down and crossed her arms. Cloud had been horrifically damaged, and she was now playing host to materials from one of the grotesque things ShinRa kept in the reactor. "I guess that's why Cloud always had a harder time healing than we did..."

"Yeah...but hey, it's not all bad. You'll definitely find fighting _a lot_ easier. Between the two of us, there's no way they can keep us here. And once we've made it, maybe we can find a _nicer_ scientist to help this guy out."

Tifa frowned, but nodded her agreement. Escape might come easy like Zack said, but the idea of seeing another person in a lab coat nauseated her, no matter how well-meaning that individual might be. She just wished that none of what had put them here had happened in the first place.


	2. Fugitives

**A/N:** Well, it's taken me forever, but here's the second chapter. (Life's been disgustingly busy as of late...just had to keep chipping away at it.) On a happier note, thanks to everyone who's reviewed so far! I really didn't expect such a positive response to the first chapter. Hopefully I can keep it up.

**Disclaimer: **SE owns FFVII and the related Compilation. But...their characters are not free from my evil, creative wiles. ^_^

* * *

**Foresight-Fugitives**

* * *

The world wanted to forget even more than she did; enough to bury the truth beneath an exact replica of the town Sephiroth had single-handedly razed. Gone were the smoke and stench of charred flesh. Late evening bore only a cool, dewy scent, mingled with traces of unrefined mako. Houses stood, sturdy and unscathed, with warm lamplight peeking through curtains in some windows. Stars winked into existence as the sun set behind the mountains. The only all-knowing witness, the sky above, was silent, content to play its part; indifferent to whether the people below committed good or evil.

Tifa nestled Cloud against the wall of the rocky alcove between the ShinRa mansion and the village proper, and crept along its edge with Zack. Rounding the corner revealed more structures that should have been little more than piles of ash and charcoal support beams. Another few steps, and Tifa caught a glimpse of the well, untouched by any hint of the conflagration. She doubled back against the wall, tightly sealing her eyes and wracking her memory. Hadn't it only been a few days ago, that she'd been searching through town, and every single building was ablaze? But...it also felt like forever that she, Zack, and Cloud had spent floating in those mako-tank prisons, drugged and comatose most of the time.

"No way we just imagined all of that!" Zack blurted aloud what she was thinking. "You remember it too, right Tifa?"

"I wish I didn't. But...yeah. He killed almost everyone. This can't be Nibelheim..."

"Might be a cover-up," Zack suggested. "I've seen ShinRa do some pretty sick things to keep their secrets under wraps. Ever hear of a town called Banora?"

An angry scowl formed on Tifa's face, and she nodded in the affirmative. Yes, she had heard of Banora, back in her early teens. She'd also heard that there had been a freak explosion at one of the apple processing plants there, turning most of the place into rubble. She remembered how incensed her father had been, raving about how, as usual, everyone just pretended to believe it, too afraid of what might happen to them if they started questioning ShinRa's stories. Suddenly, it seemed that apple juice could readily pass for being as chemically volatile as mako, and flammable as napalm.

Tifa wondered what the world thought of Nibelheim now. What bizarre tale might the company have concocted to hide what had happened here?

As she crept back to check on Cloud, she found that he'd slumped down onto his side, unable to support his own weight. If not for his sporadic attempts to communicate, she would have believed their time imprisoned in the mansion's lab had rendered him a complete vegetable. Gently, Tifa lifted him up off the ground, hooking her hands beneath his arms.

They needed to get out of here. As much as it hurt, whether the town's presence was a cover-up, a cruel joke, or a shared hallucination didn't matter anymore. The Nibelheim she and Cloud knew as children was long gone, and he desperately needed a doctor. Cloud was the last person she really had left; the only other survivor that she'd known all her life. Tifa felt like his ability to pull through would determine whether or not she could eventually cope with all that had happened-whether she could ever truly live with it. Cloud was the difference between having to say she lost everything, and only losing a great deal.

_"And yet, what you have gained is much greater..."_

Before she could protest the foreign thought, a shrill buzzing noise emanated from inside of Tifa's head, and she knelt, depositing Cloud's limp form back onto the ground. Her arms and legs went numb, and she collapsed on top of him. Behind shut eyes, she saw unfamiliar images of a snowy wasteland, set before a towering range of mountains that dwarfed Nibel. A cold, desolate place. A _safe_ place, considering the danger the three of them faced at the moment. But, now was the worst time to be day-dreaming herself elsewhere. Although staggered, Tifa collected herself, forced her legs to stand, and turned away from Cloud barely in time to keep from vomiting all over him.

Not much came up. For how sick she felt, inside and out, scant bile emerged, reminding Tifa of how pathetically little they'd been fed in the lab. Her stomach churned for a few seconds more, and her mouth was parched, but her strength returned as though it had never gone. An odd, sad thought crossed her mind then; a sorry idea of having been made into an inexhaustible machine masquerading in human skin. The experiments had changed her. Yet, even if that was somehow true, it would at least mean that she wouldn't likely be able to fail in getting Cloud the help he needed. Once he was in good hands, then she could try to work out what ShinRa's mad scientists had made of her. Or, maybe try to ignore it and live as close to normalcy as she could.

Tifa exhaled slowly, standing the rest of the way. Turning back to Cloud, the length of her hair flopped down against her back. Zack was already supporting her mako-addicted friend on one arm, and had apparently thought to hold her hair out of the way while she retched. For the first time, she took note of how inexorably long it had grown; all the way down her back. Nothing was allowing her to ignore the question of how much time had passed. Her mind was still so foggy, but even her own body seemed to suggest that quite a bit longer than a few days or even weeks had passed.

"Are you sure you're okay to keep going, Tifa?" Zack asked. "I don't like the idea of falling back, but it's crawling with infantry out there. I can take them no problem, but keeping all of them busy enough not to grab you or Cloud is another story."

Tifa shook her head, recalling how she'd killed the lab tech with just one miserably well-targeted hit; a hit that should have left him reeling with a broken, bloody nose at worst. "I won't slow you down. I'm just...hungry," she excused.

"Don't remind me," Zack groaned. "I could swallow a behemoth steak whole. As soon as we're out of here, we'll get some food."

"I hope so," Tifa agreed, swallowing back a mouthful of excess saliva that had gathered when Zack mentioned steak.

Peering back around the corner at the town, she observed the tight security Zack had mentioned. Blue-suited men with rifles and night sticks wandered near closed shop entrances and the inn. A few kept a discreet look out on top of the well-discreet, but lax. One of them was asleep.

Walking through like common passers-by was still out of the question, but there was one very small and obstacle-ridden passage the men had left unguarded. Fenced-in back yards belonging to houses across the street were all clear. That is, if they could even be called "yards"; most of the buildings stood so close to the mountain, the space behind them was more like a very narrow alley. The fences primarily served as a safe-guard against wild animals looking for leftovers. Trash cans, furnaces, water heaters, and generators further obstructed the way. Dragging Cloud through there would definitely take some time. With a little luck, the guards wouldn't notice.

Yet, there was one other option. "Rocket Town is on the other side of the mountain trail. It's a few days' hike, but much lower chances of getting caught," Tifa suggested.

Zack glanced up the mountain in consideration, but his face quickly fell. "Yeah, but I don't think Cloud can make it that long. Besides, those guys out there want us alive, and they're a lot softer than some of the monsters that live in the mountains. Up there, we wouldn't be the only ones looking for dinner."

Tifa winced. Zack was right. Either way, someone or something would be hunting them. Forward was the only way, and it was only a matter of time before one of those men forced her into depriving him of his life to save her own. She was still trying to shake the filthy, polluted aura that had followed her after her confrontation with the lab technician. Self-defense wasn't enough to take away how very unnatural it felt to end another human being's time. Learning to fight under Zangan had never been about killing people, just protection. She was a guide on Mt. Nibel, after all. She had only ever counted on having to defeat monsters looking to snack on tourists or ShinRa personnel, and there was nothing wrong in that. For one creature to destroy another for defense or food was just a normal part of the life cycle, and something she witnessed almost every time she climbed the mountain; certainly nothing as insidious or perverse as taking out one's own kind.

"Okay," she sighed, "if we can slip behind those houses on the left, we can probably sneak most of the way through."

"Fair enough. Let's get the hell out of here."

Crouching low to the ground, Tifa scurried to the rear of the first building; the one built to replicate Cloud's house. Zack waited a moment before following in her tracks with Cloud in a slow, stumbling march. Until he began to recover, there was no humane or realistic way to make him move faster, short of carrying him. Worse, although the mako and Jenova cell treatments had severely weakened Cloud, they'd also had the normal effect of bulking him up. He was heavy enough that carrying him wouldn't make a difference. Cloud's body was now that of a full-fledged SOLDIER, but his poor response to the experiments had disabled his mind from being able to maneuver it unaided. All Tifa could do was anxiously watch and wait, expecting them to be spotted every step of the way.

When they made it safely across, Tifa released the breath she'd been holding, and started down the alley. ShinRa had been far less painstakingly accurate in rebuilding the backs of the houses. There were fewer fences blocking the path than she'd expected, and some of the houses actually shared furnaces and water heaters now. The company had spared expenses where it figured that no one would bother asking questions. In fact, because of the shared utilities, what was supposed to be her house had the most glaring error of them all: It was constructed almost flush against the cliff. A small cat or rodent might be able to squeeze through, but not three grown people.

Panicking, Tifa desperately scanned her surroundings for any other hidden paths. They could climb up the wall, and keep their backs to the cliff, hoping that the roof would block them from view. But, that would be too rough on Cloud. For the same reason, turning back to the mountains was definitely out. The only way out was the alley to her right, which led to the front, where she, Cloud, and Zack would have to try their luck with the night-watch cadets.

"Hey, look at it like this: We already made it halfway. If the ones behind know what they're dealing with, they might stay back," Zack offered. "Or...ah, we'll be surrounded. Not gonna lie; it could actually get messy from here..."

"Half for each of us, I guess," Tifa lamented. There was no way around it; if she wanted to make it out alive and intact with Cloud, those charged with stopping them were going to have to pay for it dearly. "Let's leave Cloud in the alley until it's over. I don't want them to try to take him while we're fighting."

"Nice thinking...and, uh, Tifa?"

"Hm?"

Zack settled Cloud against Tifa's copy-house, and snatched a black tarp from one of the decommissioned furnaces. Loosely, he draped it over Cloud, and continued, "Back in SOLDIER, someone I respected once told me that if you wind up getting your hands too dirty on a mission, you have to protect your honor. If you can say you fought for the right reasons, you can live with what you had to do."

Tifa's jaw dropped slightly, and she glared at him. What kind of awful excuse was _that?_ "Is that what SOLDIERs are trained to think," she whispered, "so long as they make up something nice in their heads, it doesn't matter who has to die?"

"That's not what I'm saying! What about when you went after Sephiroth? Was that wrong?" Zack plead, smacking his forehead. "Don't tell me you were just planning on talking it out with him."

"I wanted to make him stop. So many people would have lived if I could have..." Tifa blinked back tears, and looked at the tarp covering Cloud. This was a bad time to get into some complicated, conscience-induced tiff with her only healthy ally. "But...it's not like he can stand up and fight for himself, is it?"

"Exactly. Worrying about how we did it can wait."

Back to back, Tifa and Zack emerged from the alley, on guard for an instant attack. At first, all she could hear were crickets, and the distant howl of a Nibel wolf. Then, there were heavy footfalls from Zack's side, and the click and buzz of an activated walkie-talkie.

"I've got a twenty on the lab rats. Requesting immediate back-up. Targets are armed and dangerous. Preparing to engage..."

"Rat? Really? Man, that kind of makes me miss the whole 'puppy' thing," Zack grumbled under his breath.

Then, several bullets ricocheted off of the Buster Sword, and within seconds, the blade met with flesh. Tifa held her breath at the wet, grisly sound of the first man's death, and jumped slightly when his body thumped on the ground. Her pulse exploded when five more men came running from the general store on her side.

Lab rats! Their former captors and keepers couldn't even be bothered to acknowledge their humanity! The same rage she'd felt running up the reactor's stairs the night Nibelheim burned flared up in her chest anew. Those cowards were coming for her in higher numbers because they figured she was the weaker half; easy to pick off. By their logic, all they'd have to do is plant a bullet or ten in her skull, and Zack's back would be open to them. They didn't understand that not only had she'd been trained to fight, but had undergone an extended, torturous version of SOLDIER's medical induction procedure.

_"You'll learn to love it..."_

Cyan light engulfed Tifa's battle-ready stance before she could react to the intrusive inner voice, and she lashed out at her attackers with a massive water-kick, sending all five tumbling backwards on what might as well have been an ocean's wave. Hopping back to guard Zack's back, she focused on her assailants' slow, labored movements while they struggled to regain their footing. Sloppy and disjointed, they fell in on her one at a time with flailing fists and night sticks.

Tifa locked a hand around the first man's wrist, twisting and breaking it before tossing him aside, sending another off-balance in the process. While he was busy tripping over his own feet walking toward her, she reached out to lift him by the collar of his uniform, and leapt up to slam him back into his fellow cadets below.

Bruised and broken, only one survivor crawled away, shakily grasping for potions, his PHS, and his short-range walkie-talkie.

"Request for special forces...Original intel...incorrect. Two..._repeat, TWO_ SOLDIER Project S First Class...still at large. Cadet escapee still unaccounted for...please advise..."

"Two?" a gruff, static-laden voice on the other end replied."Damn Hojo! He specifically named one SOLDIER, one cadet, and one Nibel civilian female."

"...That woman is no civilian, sir...enhanced hand-to-hand...she can't be..." Coughing up a mouthful of blood, the last infantryman standing on Tifa's side rolled over and died.

Listening hard, Tifa heard no more men coming for them. Hesitantly turning, she took in a similar scene on Zack's side; a small cluster of men keeled over one another, cut up and dead or dying. The night-time insect hum and the periodic calls of Nibel's wildlife remained silent, reverent and wary of a new and far superior predator in their midst.

Her first reaction was denial-she was not and would never be a predatory creature. Those animals were only acting on instinct, she told herself. They smelled the bloodshed, and their nature instructed them to run and hide; do anything to keep from being next. How could they possibly know and recognize their motives? But, guilt was setting in already. The best she could do was to bury it until a better time came to mourn her actions. Biting her lower lip, she numbly followed Zack as he trotted into the alleyway to fetch Cloud.

"Alright!" he exclaimed. "That was the easy part. Now, we high-tail it out of here before ShinRa sends in anything stronger."

Easy, he'd said. If he meant making it out of a fight in which they'd been sorely outnumbered with hardly a scrape, and with Cloud exactly as they'd left him, Tifa supposed Zack was right. She couldn't help but entertain other ideas, though. Mindlessly plowing through men as though they were nothing made her feel like a monster. And, if they made it through all of this? She'd have to take the fact that she'd been one of ShinRa's experimental subjects to the grave if she didn't want to be ostracized everywhere she went. Tifa bit back hard on those thoughts. Once things settled down; once they'd escaped Nibelheim, she and Cloud could search for a place where no one would ever know they had been ShinRa's guinea pigs. There, she could simply choose not to use her newfound power. No one had to know.

As Tifa moved to help Zack assist Cloud out into the open, the front door of her false home opened, and she froze. A familiar, long-lost face emerged from the dimly-lit entrance. He had aged a bit more than she last remembered, but it was _him_! He was supposed to be dead, though. She'd heard him die, hadn't she?

"Papa?"

"Don't just stand out there! All three of you get in here now! They'll be sending more..."

Unable to form a coherent thought for the moment, Tifa obeyed, and Zack trailed along with Cloud.

Quickly, her father shut and locked the door behind them, and closed the blinds, before pulling her close and weeping.

"Four years...four years, Tifa..." he rambled, "four years I searched the mountains, the reactor, and the abandoned mansion. I dug up the pits where they buried the others..."

"Papa..." Tifa mumbled against her father's shoulder, trying to find the words. "They took us to the mansion. There's a lab in the basement..." Cruel memories of her time there tried to resurface, and Tifa choked up, pushing back down on them. Yes, she remembered many awful things, but others...not yet. She couldn't handle them yet. She wasn't ready to remember. And what was this about four years? "They shot you outside the reactor, didn't they? I thought you were dead," she confessed.

Releasing her, her father cast his eyes to the floor, ashamed. "Because I was the mayor, ShinRa decided I would be useful in their conspiracy. In exchange for my life, and the right to search for you, I agreed to play along. ShinRa's Turks brought me back to the construction camp, nursed me back to health, and gave me a fake past to parrot back to any strangers who passed through. They rebuilt everything while they were still burying the dead in mass graves outside the reactor," he explained. "They did execute most of the survivors, though. Zangan... he was shot when I'd barely come to."

Tifa walked away in sheer disbelief, into the kitchen, barely hearing her father tell Zack and Cloud to go rest upstairs before coming after her. She needed to sit down. He was alive, and she was beyond grateful for that. The man had come so close to finding her, but the passage to the basement, as she'd seen, was too carefully concealed. In hindsight, it was probably best they'd reunited this way. If he had found a way down to the basement, whatever deal he'd cut with ShinRa would have been a moot point.

Exhausted, she sat down at the table, and blankly studied the patterns in the wood. She noted that they were different from the ones she'd grown up with, but it was the same design and manufacturer. Her father rambled on as he approached, unable to hide his shock. That ShinRa had lied to him wasn't the shocking part, she knew. He'd never really trusted the company. But, Tifa suspected that as vigilant as her father had been since her mother's death, he'd spent the last four years blaming himself that they'd been able to ensconce her away right under his nose. With as watchful and paranoid as he could be sometimes, as far as he was concerned, they should have never been able to pull it off. Not with his daughter.

"I don't think we can stay here," Tifa whimpered when he came to sit beside her.

"I know. Not for long, anyhow. I sent Zack and Cloud upstairs to rest in the meantime. I'll prepare some food and supplies for the three of you, and then you'll have to leave. I'll just...stay here and pretend to keep searching the mountains for your body. That's where that one rat-bastard scientist told me he saw you. He tried to tell me you jumped off a cliff!"

A protective vehemence filled her father's tone; something that she never would have found comforting until now. Grief and constant worry had aged him, but he was still the devout, loving, hot-headed man who'd raised her. His obsessive misgivings of Cloud had yet to come up, but some of his worst fears for her had come to pass at the hands of others. Life had dealt him a merciless hand, throwing something far worse than the rebellious, misunderstood neighbor boy his way. She'd always wished he'd get over that time she'd fallen off the mountain trail with Cloud, but certainly not like this!

Speaking of which-"Papa, when we go, do you know any good doctors that aren't with ShinRa? Cloud is so sick-I think he might be dying. And then, what they did to Zack and I...I'm scared."

The man buried his face in his hands, wracking his memory for an answer, tired and brimming with regret. "Cosmo Canyon and Mideel have private practitioners. That boy looks like someone threw him into the reactor's core and didn't let him out until just now. And, your eyes, Tifa...You look like you ran off and joined SOLDIER with Zack, but they didn't feed you right. I almost wish that was the truth... You'll need a mako poisoning specialist. Go to Mideel if you can. They deal with natural cases all the time because of the land."

"Thank you," Tifa murmured. She could see that he still harbored a lingering grudge from the way he referred to Cloud, but he at least had it in him to take pity; that petty, old bitterness just wasn't important enough to him anymore.

"Never thank me, Tifa. It shouldn't have been like this. I should have just forgotten about that crazy SOLDIER bastard the moment the town was beyond saving. I should have grabbed you, and run for our lives. But, here we are...and me, a good for nothing pawn who couldn't protect his own family. I lost my wife years ago, and Gaia only knows what those ShinRa assholes did to you..."

Tifa averted her eyes, resting her head on her folded arms. "But...you're not the only one who got it wrong. Getting out of the mansion-I had to kill for it," she confessed, barely whispering. "Five-no, six already."

A reprimand of some sort was coming, Tifa was sure of it. In the past, her father had never hesitated to remind her of what he had and hadn't raised her to do and be. Bloodshed definitely didn't jive with his idea of a well-behaved mayor's daughter and citizen. Either that or he just wouldn't believe her, unable to accept that she'd gone to such extremes.

She waited, but instead, she found herself tightly locked within her father's arms, listening to him cry for her again. Ironically, it made the shame and disgrace she felt grow that much worse.

"If what they did to you made you stronger than them, then you _use_ it, you hear me?" he growled. "I can't protect you anymore, but you need to stay alive, Tifa. Use what they did, and take care of yourself. And don't you dare keep thinking you've become some kind of murderer."

Of course he couldn't forgive her; in his eyes, she'd done nothing wrong. The fear of being rejected for the blood on her hands and how the labs had changed her lifted somewhat. She couldn't agree with him entirely, but for the moment, she was allowed to feel like the desperate, frightened person she really was.

"I'll try not to," she murmured in reply, pushing back on her own tears. This was hard enough on him without having to see her cry about it, too.

Later, when she, Cloud, and Zack were far from here, she'd find some time to seclude herself, and let it out. Hopefully, she wouldn't have buried it too deep to express it by then. Between her mother's death, her own near-fatal accident in the mountains just after that, living with a consequently neurotic father, losing her hometown, and her imprisonment in the lab, doing anything else with the inevitable anguish seemed too dangerous. There was too much. No matter what horrors she'd lived through, life still had to go on, and she had no right to bring the backlash raining down on everyone around her. Everyone had their problems, didn't they? They didn't need to hear the full extent of hers. Why openly grieve what neither she nor anyone else could ever hope to change?

In fact, it was what _could_ be changed that frustrated her now. Before ShinRa took her to the basement; before Sephiroth burned Nibelheim, the line between right and wrong had been so clear; so solid and set in stone. The relative safety of her close-knit family and childhood home protected her from situations too abstract, even when she lost her mother. Back then, no one had ever done anything truly malicious to her or anyone she loved.

Not until Sephiroth.

Her heart burned with a vast array of horrifying emotions at that name; fierce anger, fear, and a twisted, sickening type of empathy. Tifa could tell he'd endured terrible things. From the way he carried himself, to the hints he'd dropped about those who'd hurt him, she could see. He'd carefully packed away each hurtful truth; each crime against him, until those things took over him. When all that damage escaped his control, it burned down everything in its path. There was nothing left to differentiate between the man and his wounds; they were one and the same.

And then...some of the very same people hurt her. They damaged, dissected, and corrupted her. Just escaping them had already forced Tifa to levels of violence she'd never before entertained committing. All that were left to guide her were her own dreams of freedom, Zack's ideals of honor, and her father's blessing for self-preservation. She had people to protect and avenge, and her own skin to save.

Vengeance, retribution...it hadn't taken her very long to start thinking about _that_, had it? Once she knew who was responsible, she had developed tunnel vision. Seeing her father lying near the reactor unconscious was all it had taken. Going after Sephiroth and stopping him-killing him-was all that had mattered; stopping the one who'd taken everything.

What if Sephiroth had felt the same? Burning down a village full of people who had nothing to do with his personal demons was heinous and sadistic, but what about everything else that had led him down that path?

"I'm tired. I'm going to my room, if it's still there," Tifa announced after rubbing her eyes and staring into space for a few minutes. "Tell us when we should go?"

Her father nodded. "Get some sleep, Tifa. I'll pack up whatever I can find for you."

She was still sickeningly hungry; her stomach was still chewing on itself, but she needed to put the dizzying, upsetting rabbit-trail her mind had decided to pursue out of its misery. Tonight would at least gift her with a few hours of sleep that weren't the result of a drug-induced stupor. When she woke, her body would be whole, and the darkness afforded by the earliest hours of the morning would aid in their escape.

Dragging her feet upstairs, Tifa finally flopped down in her old bed. Or, one that looked and felt very much like it. As her eyelids grew heavier, and she succumbed to a comfortable sleep, an invasive thought pronounced itself in a deep, silent voice.

_"All that truly remains of this place are you and yours. Do you not wish to understand why?"_


	3. In Wait

**A/N:** Yep, I'm still here. Sluggish, but here, trying to get back into my writing groove. Hopefully, I can get back to that point where I'm confidently pooping out a chapter or two every couple of weeks. We'll see. I just hope the quality of _this_ chapter hasn't been diluted by planning spread out into too many small tidbits over too much time.

**Disclaimer: **No part of the FFVII compilation is mine. Not now, not ever. I just abuse it when the muse harasses me hard enough.

* * *

**Foresight-In Wait**

* * *

Sephiroth reemerged from the Lifestream when his ignorant creators threw him lifelines entangled with lifelines: Mother's cells, his cells, and the Mako-blood of the Planet. So-called "clones" and SOLDIERs walked the surface unawares, filled to the brim with a longing they could not name. It was the instinct of his and Mother's Reunion. She would share herself with no one but those she chose, and those he had called to his side. Mother had chosen only him, and he had as of yet called no one, desiring only all the world to himself. All the same, the lesser beings would crawl the expanse of the Planet to meet with him, and die to release the substance they were unworthy of carrying. Then, he and Mother would be whole, and ready to carry out a conquest two millennia overdue.

Four years Sephiroth had spent thus far, carefully recalling his own image, its shape and stature, until the spirit energy that had been his since birth encapsulated him in a hard materia crystal. Regenerating within his confines, he was separate from the world, but merging with it all at once. With Mother's blessing, he was a world unto himself. He was the Chosen One, having bathed in the knowledge and wisdom of the Ancients, and having long since surpassed it. As Mother had tried the Cetra and found them lacking, he would do likewise to humanity. Gaia would know judgment, and cry its death knells, before succumbing to its natural cycle of rebirth, rising again only as part of him. Each individual consciousness would coagulate into one, gifting him with their collective power, but remembering only his name and purpose. A god, he would rule over every soul.

He had started Reunion with a whisper. A company of SOLDIERs investigating a cave near Gaia's Cliff mistook his call for their own bored, wandering thoughts. Disobeying the parameters their commanding officers had set for them, they ventured deeper, breaching the interior of the Northern Crater. Standing beneath his concealed materia crystal, they'd exchanged puzzled looks before falling on their own swords wordlessly; as if that had been the most logical next step to follow. Panic and regret for what they'd done registered on their faces only when it was too late; when their lives had almost completely spilled out.

SOLDIER-led investigations and scouts of the local area fed the first wave of Reunion generously, until the sheer number of deaths, disappearances, and psychotic episodes became too much for even ShinRa to stomach for its military. Sephiroth considered this just as well. Competition had arrived for the time being- an apparition that some annoyingly referred to as Gaia's "Goddess", dredging up memories of friendships and betrayals that were so far behind and beneath him now. Yet, she'd hampered the influx, driving back many who carried Mother's cells, and killing others who dared to defy her in persisting.

It was then that Sephiroth understood his Reunion would have to occur in one massive, crushing blow. To distract the Planet's defenses, he would execute the most pivotal, climactic points of his plans all at once. Scrambling to save itself, Gaia would awaken its ancient WEAPONs, and they would rampage over the surface. Then, desperate to save face, ShinRa would undoubtedly draw excruciating amounts of Mako from the Planet to fight them. Overwhelmed by the power company's blood-sucking actions, Gaia would no longer have the strength or resources to contribute to warding off a motley crew of SOLDIERs, former experiments, and clones from meeting with he and Mother, and sacrificing themselves.

Yet, to allow the many thousands with his and Mother's cells to live free of his influence was unacceptable. The Planet might attempt to cleanse and heal them, rendering the coming Reunion smaller and weaker.

Sephiroth expanded his senses, stretching his mind to learn the names of every living soul who'd been exposed to Mother, or the samples ShinRa had taken from him. Unsurprisingly, most were from SOLDIER, proudly touting their ranks before their birth names, convinced the former had become more important. These would be relatively easy to manipulate when the time came, provided he prepared them. Upon the slightest suspicion that they were inhuman or test subjects, they'd be grasping the thin air for any minuscule way to retain some internal semblance of pride and honor. In the meantime, Sephiroth filled their dreams with images of a northern excursion; a pleasant, secluded retirement in Icicle Inn.

On the other hand, Sephiroth found most of the clones and experimental subjects to be little more than mindless invalids. It was already well within their nature to behave like animals, wandering to and fro, searching and begging for food, warmth, or some vague memory of what purpose and affection felt like. These, he could move at a moment's notice. They were all but preprogrammed to obey a master's voice.

But, there were a select few who wouldn't heed Reunion's call so readily. Two of them shrugged off his subconscious touch as a meaningless Mako dream, and a third man with them was so lost in addiction and poison that his influence was just another voice among a plethora of others.

Zack, Sephiroth recognized almost instantly. A constant and consistent failure in strategic planning, Fair had been willful if nothing else. And strong. Not even he could deny that Zack had been a formidable opponent four years prior, back in the Nibelheim reactor. He'd apparently survived, ironically because of Hojo's nefarious scientific devices. Although not as directly manipulable as Mother's other carriers, Zack was conveniently prone to simple suggestion, as long as they seemed to mesh with whatever goals he'd set. Free from the lab, he would cut down many obstacles in Reunion's way. If their destruction served some heroic end purpose in his eyes, Fair would not falter.

Weaving through the mental labyrinth brought on by Mako addiction, Sephiroth identified the younger man as the cadet who'd thrown him to the reactor's bottom. Even weak, uncut men like him could pull off nigh-miraculous feats of strength in the face of death. He'd seen it time and again before he'd abandoned ShinRa, before he was aware of who and what he was, and what he was meant to become. Like Zack, this one's luck had truly run out when Hojo discovered their bodies. His name was Cloud Strife. Sephiroth decided to note it in case he recovered. It was important that this man come to know, before he breathed his last, that he'd never had a hope, not even the smallest breath of a chance, of overcoming him. Before Strife died, he'd understand that what he'd accomplished in Nibelheim was a fluke; nothing that could happen again.

At last, Sephiroth moved on to survey the remaining host to his and Mother's cells. And, for the first time since his physical body began to reintegrate, he felt the corners of his mouth turn up into a small, ironic smirk. The Lockhart girl's survival was unsurprising. He'd long since determined that survival was an intrinsic part of her nature; who and what _she_ was. But, to see and feel how perfect; how seamless the symbiosis between her and Mother was...It was a freak success on Hojo's part, but it made Sephiroth admire Tifa's fortitude all the more. Yes, she was emotionally wounded; perhaps irrevocably scarred from the loss of her hometown and the experiments, but her mind was still her own. He'd felt it from the very start: There was something different; something special about this human woman. Even as Mother's cells bonded and mutated within her, she was not one to be controlled; not like the others. He would have to _lure_ her in, if she was to show up at Reunion. The instinctive urge to travel wouldn't be enough to bring her to him. She needed a reason to follow its guidance, or else her strong will would reduce it to a mere, albeit unrelenting sense of restlessness.

Until he could coax her northward, Sephiroth decided he'd settle with lingering in Tifa's subconscious. Gently, he'd push her; encourage her to embrace Jenova's power and his will, until meeting with him turned into an engrossing preoccupation, and until she began to sense the mighty rift that housing Mother's cells had already created between herself and this world.

He was there with her when she learned her new strength, delivering an unsuspecting lab technician his death. He subtly announced his presence while she watched over Strife, and assured her that her losses were merely in exchange for something far superior. Sephiroth egged Tifa on as she fought the ShinRa forces trying to bar her from freedom. And, he showed her the one thing he'd planned on all along for her to see: All that he'd left alive pertained to her.

* * *

Tifa had never appreciated how wonderfully secluded Nibelheim was until just now. It frightened her, how small and almost irrelevant to the world at large her tiny hometown had been. Nestled cozily in the mountains' shadow, it was once a good place to hide away. ShinRa had seen this, and had done exactly that, wintering in the cold peaks with their most atrocious secrets safely tucked away. Now, that quaint, backwater town she'd called home was nothing but a ShinRa stronghold; an undercover fortress.

She used to believe that someday, she'd leave the town, longing only to return to its safety and familiarity as soon as possible. As it had turned out, she didn't so much as look back until the place was well out of sight, and the Nibelheim range was nothing but a purplish shadow on the fading horizon.

All through the wee hours of the morning, she'd brought up the rear of her small group, hefting along the supplies her father had given them. A few feet ahead, Zack limped with Cloud, stopping once or twice when it appeared the younger man's wobbly legs might give out. Luckily, so far, the dusty, broken trail they'd followed contained only shoddily constructed mechanical guards with bad aim to block their way. Tifa was surprised to learn that Zack was an even worse shot when he insisted that it would be best to try to take them out with a beaten-up rifle he'd found on the roadside, to keep them from signaling the Army.

In the end, she wound up wrecking most of them manually. At some points, when Zack tried to shoot more than one at a time, there really wasn't a choice...Tifa thought she might scream when it turned out that the rickety gunned contraptions used the same ammo as the rifle, and he collected it to reload and go after more of them.

Eventually, the way ahead was all clear, and all the ex-SOLDIER could do was shrug at his sloppy performance. "Hey, I never said they taught us everything! Not bad for my first try, if you ask me."

Cloud hiccupped, and Tifa wondered if he was trying to laugh at Zack's silly display of hubris. She hoped so. "He should probably just stick to that overgrown sword on his back, right Cloud?" she teased, praying he'd reply, even in the slightest.

But, he didn't.

"...Maybe he doesn't feel like taking sides yet," Zack murmured, lifting Cloud from the ground.

"No, I guess not," Tifa solemnly agreed.

If only it was really that simple. If only Cloud was just in a sour mood after she'd discovered he'd never made SOLDIER, or something like that. She'd much rather have to be frustrated with him for pouting than worried he might not live much longer!

"Anyway...if we keep going this way, we'll reach the ocean soon. Maybe we can follow the shore around to Costa del Sol?" Zack suggested.

"No, I think we need to turn south. Cosmo Canyon is that way. The doctor there isn't a Mako specialist, but I don't think Cloud can wait until we stow away to Mideel," Tifa countered. "And us? I don't even want to say..."

Zack frowned, shook his head, and started off southward. "We'll be okay, Tifa. Mako addiction isn't something that waits to show up out of nowhere. You kind of either tolerate it or you don't."

Tifa inhaled, but refrained from saying anything else. Mako poisoning or addiction weren't what she was worried about anymore. What scared her was that four years had passed; they were both missing a considerable chunk of that time from memory. What _else_ might have Hojo and his lackeys done to them? To top all that off, she kept hearing a voice in her head that very clearly did not belong to her! She wasn't ready to let Zack in on that, though. Hallucinatory experiences were a hallmark of Mako over-exposure, but she'd always heard that those voices and visions were supposed to be jumbled, incoherent, and numerous. Tifa was only hearing one, and it said what felt like some very deliberate, calculated things; some outright challenging how she truly felt about her situation. But, it was frightening and embarrassing enough that she didn't want to bring it up unless it turned into something dangerous. She didn't need to have it confirmed that she was probably more damaged than she appeared.

But then, Zack was a SOLDIER, and as far as he was concerned, all that had happened to them was an extremely high-intensity version of SOLDIER's treatment. It was a sobering thought, that before she experienced it for herself, she had never truly grasped to what extent ShinRa medically altered their best men. Sure, she'd known of the Mako enhancements. Who didn't? Tifa tried to take some comfort in the fact that Cloud had only now been exposed to the full operation. If he'd actually managed to qualify for SOLDIER, and reacted this badly...There were all kinds of rumors and tales about what happened to the military's rejects, and none of them were pleasant. At least this way, Cloud was still alive, and surrounded by people who only wanted him to recover.

Zack abruptly paused. "Did you hear that?"

Tifa listened closely. There was a light breeze combing through the high grasses off the road. Crickets and birds hopped and fluttered about, searching for food, mates, and evading one another. And, although it was still a couple of miles away, she thought she could make out the crash of the waves on the shoreline. Then, in some brush ahead, a single twig gave a forceful snap. Something big was taking cover there.

"I can take Cloud if you want," she offered, gesturing toward the bushes that had elicited the suspect noise.

Smirking, Zack turned and unloaded the half-conscious man into her arms. "Thanks, Tifa. Wait here for a minute. I've...gotta take a _really serious_ leak over there."

Tifa rolled her eyes, but quickly caught on to Zack's meaning when he placed his hand on the Buster Sword's handle, and stepped lightly toward their potential stalker. But, _she_ disappointed him, choosing to step out of hiding voluntarily. She was a small woman, with light auburn hair and matching eyes, dressed unmistakably as one of the Turks. Casually, she brushed herself off, and plucked a leaf from her hair. Tifa cringed. ShinRa had already caught up with them.

"Cissnei?! How long have you been following us?" Zack cried.

"I've been right behind you for the last two hours. I'm surprised you didn't notice anything sooner. You didn't make it hard to find you, with all that shrapnel you left," she stated, matter-of-factly. "It was getting monotonous. So, all three of you are here? All three 'samples'?"

Tifa wished she could relax. Zack seemed to know this Turk woman, but his stance hadn't loosened up at all. If anything, he seemed even more on edge. It was also quite impossible to ignore the huge shuriken Cissnei was carrying.

"You're here to take us back to ShinRa, aren't you?" Tifa blurted out.

Zack's shoulders stiffened; Tifa was pretty sure she'd just said what he was trying to feel out. Now, all bets were off. "Don't do this, Cissnei. Pretend our trail went cold or something! The army's one thing, but I can't run from the Turks too!" he begged.

Cissnei momentarily stalled, but tightened her grip on Rekka. "I'm sorry, Zack, but...this is my job!"

In a flash, her shuriken ricocheted off the Buster Sword, and hurtled toward Tifa, who ducked down with Cloud barely in time to avoid it.

Taking slow steps back, Zack held his sword directly in front of him in warning, ready to attack. "Just stay away, Cissnei! If I have to, I'll..."

"Ugh..ah..." Cloud moaned, distracting Zack and Cissnei from their impending struggle.

"...What did they do to you guys in that lab?" Cissnei asked, distraught at the sight of Cloud's illness.

"This and that..." Zack replied, reluctant to go into detail.

"Too much," Tifa added, looking down at Cloud. "He's dying of Mako poisoning, and all you can think about is doing your 'job'? I hate it..."

Cissnei sighed, at least mildly troubled. Or, that's what Tifa hoped she was seeing. Pulling her phone from a pocket, she punched in a speed-dial number.

"No! You can't-!" Tifa started, nearly dropping Cloud, but Cissnei held one hand up, motioning for her silence.

"Tseng, I've lost them. The escapees' trail split off about a half hour ago...Yes, I'll double back to the beach and see what I can turn up."

"Why the sudden change of heart?" Tifa inquired, but calmly, when Cissnei clicked her phone shut.

"...My orders were to capture the Science Division's samples and bring them to ShinRa in safety, but returning you to Professor Hojo will do nothing but endanger you. Call it a conflict of interests. That's how it is, until I can...clarify. Get him to a doctor before it's too late." Cissnei tossed a set of keys to Zack. "It's in the bushes. I don't want to know where you're going."

"Thank you," Zack groaned, lowering the Buster Sword's sharp tip, letting it poke into the dusty road.

"Take care of yourselves," Cissnei said, and walked away.

Tifa suspected it wasn't exactly routine for the Turks to twist the context of their orders like Cissnei had just done. Her first encounter with them had been when they were on some kind of investigation near the Nibelheim reactor, and all because she'd felt the need to pursue her escaping cat. From that meeting, she wound up volunteering to guide SOLDIER up the mountain. Given what she could recall of her small, teenaged, untreated build back then, it wasn't hard to imagine that the Turks weren't put off by using innocent by-standers when they proved convenient. Yes, she'd known how to fight a little bit, but it would have been years until she could take on the nests of dragons and packs of wolves that lived near the peak. Granted, that turned into a moot point with Zack and Sephiroth around to fight them off. She'd known the trails, so she was useful. Unfortunately, she was also naive enough at the time to think of the Turks' request for her assistance as a great way to prove to her father that she was perfectly capable of taking care of herself.

Funny. Now that she really was able, Tifa had never felt so weak and helpless.

At any rate, Cissnei's decision to let them go couldn't have been something she'd done out of a sense of duty to ShinRa or the Turks. She was clearly acting on conscience, for Zack's sake; for a _friend_, and possibly, for the bad taste that Cloud's condition put in her mouth. Unlike the soldiers they'd encountered in Nibelheim, who were probably only following orders, the Turks were in a business of negotiations, shady deals, and even back-stabbing where it was called for. Who knew how long she, Zack, and Cloud would really be allowed to continue running?

Above all, Tifa understood that they'd just gotten lucky. If a Turk with anything less than an amiable past with Zack had followed them...That Turk would possibly be dead, she realized.

_A perfect symbiosis of Jenova's power in you. Use it..._

Her head swam for a moment, as it always did when the voice intruded in her thoughts, and she imagined exactly how she might have done it. Tifa fought against the imposing thought that, if she wanted to, she still could. With someone as small and nimble as Cissnei, all she'd really require was a sufficient element of surprise. Not too difficult, considering her grossly altered body, and all of its alien power. One second, Cissnei would keep walking away from them; the next, she'd fall to the ground in a limp pile at her feet with a snapped neck. The Turks had been the ones to get her so involved with Nibelheim's downfall, were at least partially to blame for how she'd wound up in Hojo's lab, probably kept the fact that she was down there from her grieving father, and most certainly had a hand in allowing Cloud to deteriorate. Didn't she have the right to some kind of retribution?

No. No, she didn't, Tifa decided, as she watched Zack take Cloud from her, and help him into the sidecar of the bike he'd just unveiled from the bushes. She might question her humanity left and right from now on, but she couldn't stoop to ShinRa's level. She wouldn't hurt or destroy someone who'd thrown them a much needed bone, just because that person happened to be a Turk.

"One person at a time," Tifa whispered to herself, and followed them. She'd have to determine her friends and foes individually if she didn't want to feel like all the world was against her.

For now, she knew she could count on her father, Zack, and Cloud as true allies. Cissnei was a gray area, and that sick, invasive voice in her head seemed to have some kind of vested interest in her survival. The latter's purposes were mysterious as ever, but with its inclination to make violent suggestions, she didn't trust it.

* * *

Cosmo Canyon was not fond of visitations from anyone affiliated with ShinRa. Apparently, Cosmo Canyon was also extremely wary of harboring fugitives from the company. The man standing guard over the simple wooden entrance at the top of the red, sandstone steps was as a stern, unwavering statue in their way. He crossed his arms, locked his jaw in an authoritarian grimace, and never allowed his dark eyes to stray from their focus on Zack's sword.

"Your friend's illness is a grave misfortune, but we cannot take it upon ourselves to undo the vast horrors ShinRa has done. They are too many. We only have the strength to keep these cliffs untouched. To allow you here would only invite the company's wrath," the man explained. "Find refuge elsewhere."

Tifa's heart sank. How could Cloud's failing struggle to live be obvious enough to give pause to a hardened Turk, but not enough to gain entrance to a small, native canyon village? "There's nowhere else we can go! My father is-was the Mayor of Nibelheim. He told me he knew a doctor here with no connections to ShinRa! Cloud needs to see him, please..."

"Look, we don't even need to stay, alright? Let the guy come out here to see him. If he can't help us, then we'll just move on," Zack pushed.

The guard uncrossed his arms, and motioned to a younger man, a teen-aged boy, to come stand in his place. "I will go explain your situation. Do not expect the fee to be small."

"How can they be like this?" Tifa mourned. She couldn't fathom the thought of refusing help to someone in such dire need, much less mocking that person!

The boy filling in for the guard fidgeted, his eyes darting nervously between Zack, Cloud, and Tifa. "It's because of Faremis' secrets. Elder Bugenhagen worked for ShinRa long ago, and was good friends with a scientist named Gast Faremis. Just before Gast left ShinRa, he left us with many gifts, and some of the Planet's mysteries. ShinRa believes we could keep the Planet from fighting against them, so they won't attack us, but...some of the elders were murdered soon after Faremis left. And again, they threatened Elder Bugenhagen after he shared our knowledge with a man from with a group called 'AVALANCHE'. So...we are afraid."

"Ouch. Talk about a rock and a hard place," Zack agreed.

"Still, he didn't have to make it feel worse than it already is," Tifa objected, sadly regarding Cloud.

"I am sorry for that. It's not most of us, but a few of the lower elders are paranoid; they think the world owes us for what we know," the boy apologized, and then hesitated, unable to keep from staring at Cloud. "I...am going to succumb to the heat now. You must rush in to find help for me. Because you have no other choice, you will bring your sick friend. The doctor's name is 'Mindah'. He will be frustrated with us both, but he will not send such a sick man away. Elder Bugenhagen can decide how long you will stay."

Zack opened his mouth to question just what the boy meant, but there was no time, as he simply fainted on cue. "What a weird kid. Well, I guess that just means we have to go in and get help, like he said."

"Right. And, there's no way I can leave Cloud out here alone," Tifa assented, helping the half-vegetative man stand.

While Zack crashed in through the biggest door in the canyon wall he could find, Tifa was only able to hobble with Cloud as far as the edge of an earthen platform, in the center of which was a large bonfire. His legs would carry him no further, even with her help. Guttural moans escaped his mouth, and his eyes rolled lazily back and forth in his head. Through the arm she held as she sat him down on the platform's edge, Tifa could feel Cloud's pulse racing faster than a frightened chocobo chick. He was completely out of steam, and she was certain he was only getting worse for it.

"Just a little bit longer, Cloud," she reassured him.

Taking in how far they'd climbed to reach the small village on the mesa, Tifa resolved that she'd not allow Cosmo's elders to make them leave right away. She'd do anything she had to-threaten them, break their property, and act like a total lunatic if that's what it took to get Cloud a bath and a decent bed for a night or two. If she could possibly help it, Tifa wouldn't harm anyone; just scare them enough to get Cloud what he needed. It would be a shame if she had to make enemies of Cosmo Canyon, especially if anything the boy at the gate had told them was even close to the truth. But, it would be even worse if the village was content enough in its game of blackmail tag with ShinRa to let Cloud die.

Less than five minutes later, the door that Zack had burst through re-opened, but only a small, elderly man emerged. He was tan-skinned like most of the people here, had a mostly-bald head, and inquisitive, gentle brown eyes. He took only a cursory glance at the gate before hurrying in Tifa's direction, waving the boy's act off for what it was. Maybe this wasn't the first time he'd pulled something like this?

Standing over her and Cloud, Mindah raised his glasses to his eyes from the chain that suspended them around his neck. "Tifa Lockhart? Yes, I suppose you do look a good bit like the Mayor's girl. The last time I spoke with your father was when you were gravely wounded in the mountains as a child. I honestly never expected to see you alive again...much less in such a _unique_ condition." Kneeling down, he plucked a tiny flashlight from his pocket, and carefully pried one of Cloud's eyes open. "Ack! Another perverse continuation of Faremis' most monumental error...Unlike you and your SOLDIER companion, he hasn't fared so well against it."

Tifa's mouth fell slightly ajar, and she felt her eyes widen, her head overloaded with which questions she ought to ask first, but at a loss for words. Mindah had taken less than a minute to guess what had happened to them.

"Come now, let's get him inside and cleaned off so I can get a better look. Then, I'll need you to tell me precisely how each of you came into contact with the Jenova Project."


End file.
